Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 2:13-18
2. The prophecies about Egypt 2:13-18Matthew continued to stress God’s predictions about and His protection of His Messiah to help his readers recognize Jesus as the promised King. read more
Matthew-2:13-16,-luke-2:21-51-niv
Thomas Constable
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 2:14-15
Herod died in 4 B.C. [Note: Hoehner, p. 13.] Josephus recorded that he died a horrible death, his body rotting away and consumed by worms. [Note: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 17:6:5; idem, The Wars . . ., 1:33.] His grandson, Herod Agrippa, later suffered a similar fate (Acts 12:23).As noted, Matthew frequently used the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies to show that Jesus was the Christ. Matthew 2:15 contains another fulfillment. This one is difficult to understand, however, because in... read more
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 2:16-18
Some critical scholars discounted Matthew’s account of Herod’s slaughter of the Bethlehem children because there is no extrabiblical confirmation of it. However, Bethlehem was small, and many other biblically significant events have no secular confirmation, including Jesus’ crucifixion. One writer estimated that this purge would have affected only about 20 children. [Note: France, p. 85.] He believed that the total population of Bethlehem at this time was under 1,000. Compared to some of... read more
John Darby
Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Matthew 2:13
2:13 Lord (c-10) See Note, ch. 1.20. read more
John Darby
Darby's Synopsis of the New Testament - Matthew 2:15
2:15 Lord (c-20) See Note, ch. 1.20. saying, (l-24) Hosea 11:1 . read more
John Dummelow
John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 2:1-23
The Wise Men1-12. The star in the east and the visit of the Magi (peculiar to St. Matthew). The incident fits well into secular history. About the time when the star appeared (7 or 6 b.c.), Herod the Great, being alarmed by a prophecy that the royal power was about to pass away from him and his line, put the authors of it to death. It is evident, therefore, that the announcement by the wise men that Herod’s supplanter in the kingdom had actually been born, would drive him to violent measures.... read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 2:13
(13) The angel.—Better, an angel. The interval of time between the departure of the Magi and Joseph’s dream is not specified. Probably it was very short. As with the Magi, the dream may have come as an echo of his waking thoughts, an answer to the perplexities with which their visit and the other wonders of the time had filled his spirit.Flee into Egypt.—The nearness of Egypt had always made it a natural asylum for refugees from Palestine. So Jeroboam had found shelter there (1 Kings 11:40),... read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 2:14
(14) He took the young child and his mother.—The form adopted here, as in the preceding verse, is significantly reverential. In a narrative of common life the natural expression would have been “his wife and the young child.”And departed into Egypt.—The brevity with which this is told is, to a certain extent, an argument for the non-mythical character of the narrative of which it forms a part. The legends of the Apocryphal Gospels, embodied in many forms of poetry and art, show how easily, in... read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 2:15
(15) Until the death of Herod.—The uncertainty which hangs over the exact date of the Nativity hinders us from arriving at any precise statement as to the interval thus described. As the death of Herod took place a little before the Passover, B.C. 4 (according to the common but erroneous reckoning), it could not have been more than a few months, even if we fix the Nativity in the previous year.Out of Egypt have I called my son.—As the words stand in Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, then I... read more
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Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Matthew 2:13
For the second time in two chapters we read that an angel from the Lord appeared with a message for Joseph (cf. Matthew 1:20). This indicates that the message had unusual importance.The order of the words "the child and His mother" is unusual. Normally the parent would receive mention before the child. This order draws attention again to the centrality of Jesus in the narrative.Egypt was a natural place of refuge at this time. Its border was just 75 miles from Bethlehem, though the nearest town... read more